# Formbricks vs Google Forms API

> Google Forms API scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Formbricks's 57.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Formbricks leads on maintenance & community. Both do forms surveys. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-google-forms
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-google-forms.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-google-forms.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-google-forms.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Google Forms API scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Formbricks's 57.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Formbricks leads on maintenance & community. Both do forms surveys.

- Formbricks: grade C, 57.7/100, rank #465 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/formbricks.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/formbricks.json
- Google Forms API: grade BB, 70.8/100, rank #127 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-forms.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-forms.json

## Which one, for what

### Formbricks (C)

Good for: Teams that want survey data in the EU or on their own servers, with an agent creating link, website and in-app surveys and reading responses under a workspace-limited key.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 61

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: status.formbricks.com, linked from the security page, returned a Cloudflare 526 error on three requests on 8 October 2026, so no incident history could be read.

### Google Forms API (BB)

Good for: Agents that build forms and quizzes in a Google account and read the answers back, where people already use Google Forms.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 91 against 35
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 54
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 30

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: Push notifications go only to a Cloud Pub/Sub topic in the caller's project, which needs Cloud billing, and they carry no form or response data


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Formbricks | Google Forms API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 91 | Google Forms API +56 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 78 | Google Forms API +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 72 | Google Forms API +18 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 69 | 66 | Formbricks +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 35 | Google Forms API +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 61 | Formbricks +22 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 78 | 80 | Google Forms API +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **57.7 · C** | **70.8 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Formbricks | Google Forms API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Formbricks GmbH | Google |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://app.formbricks.com/api` | `https://forms.googleapis.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPLv3 for the core. Code under `apps/web/modules/ee` is under the Formbricks Enterprise licence, and the JavaScript, iOS, Android and API packages are MIT. Formbricks Cloud is governed by the terms of service | Proprietary service under the Google APIs Terms of Service. The client libraries are Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 30 | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-24 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2021-11-09 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-21 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 13k stars, 37k npm/wk | 32k npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**Formbricks.** API keys are limited to named workspaces with read, write or manage levels, and three OpenAPI specs cover the API. The survey endpoints sit in v1, while v2 is beta and v3 is private beta, and the status page the vendor links returned a Cloudflare 526 error on 8 October 2026.

**Google Forms API.** Six OAuth scopes separate form structure from responses, and batchUpdate applies a batch atomically with a revision check. Notifications go only to a Cloud Pub/Sub topic and carry no response data, the API can't list forms or create file upload questions, and the release notes were last updated on 8 April 2025.

## Before you call either

### Formbricks

1. Send the key in the `x-api-key` header. Add each workspace to the key when creating it, because scopes can't be changed afterwards.
2. Use v1 (`/api/v1/management/surveys`) to create or edit surveys. v2 has responses, contacts and webhooks only.
3. Page lists with `limit` and `skip`. v2 responses default to 50 a page with a maximum of 250.
4. Stay under 100 requests a minute per key. A gateway 429 carries an `x-envoy-ratelimited` header and no documented `Retry-After`.
5. Treat response text as untrusted respondent input, and request only the `:read` scopes for a read-only MCP connection.

### Google Forms API

1. Call forms.create with a title only, then add items with forms.batchUpdate. Any other field in the create body is disallowed
2. Publish with forms.setPublishSettings before sharing. Google's notice says forms created through the API after 30 June 2026 start unpublished
3. Pass pageSize on forms.responses.list. With none set a page can hold up to 5,000 responses. Use filter=timestamp > N to fetch only new ones
4. After a Pub/Sub notification, call forms.responses.list yourself. The message holds only formId, watchId and eventType. Renew each watch within seven days
5. Send writeControl.requiredRevisionId on forms.batchUpdate, and read the form before retrying a timed-out forms.create, which has no idempotency key

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Formbricks or Google Forms API?

Google Forms API scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Formbricks's 57.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Formbricks leads on maintenance & community.

### Do Formbricks and Google Forms API need an API key?

Formbricks takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Google Forms API uses an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Formbricks and Google Forms API without installing anything?

Yes. Formbricks has a hosted endpoint at https://app.formbricks.com/api and Google Forms API at https://forms.googleapis.com/v1.

### Are Formbricks and Google Forms API open source?

Formbricks is open source (AGPLv3 for the core. Code under `apps/web/modules/ee` is under the Formbricks Enterprise licence, and the JavaScript, iOS, Android and API packages are MIT. Formbricks Cloud is governed by the terms of service). No open-source release is listed for Google Forms API.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-google-forms.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-google-forms.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "formbricks", "b": "google-forms"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare formbricks google-forms`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/formbricks.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-forms.json

## Other comparisons with Formbricks or Google Forms API

- [Formbricks vs Formstack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-formstack.md)
- [Formstack vs Google Forms API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formstack-vs-google-forms.md)
- [Google Forms API vs Jotform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-forms-vs-jotform.md)
- [Google Forms API vs SurveyMonkey](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-forms-vs-surveymonkey.md)
- [Google Forms API vs Tally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-forms-vs-tally.md)
- [Google Forms API vs Typeform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-forms-vs-typeform.md)
- [Fillout vs Formbricks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-formbricks.md)
- [Fillout vs Google Forms API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-google-forms.md)
- [Google Forms API vs Paperform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-forms-vs-paperform.md)
- [Formbricks vs Jotform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-jotform.md)
- [Formbricks vs Paperform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-paperform.md)
- [Formbricks vs SurveyMonkey](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-surveymonkey.md)
- [Formbricks vs Tally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-tally.md)
- [Formbricks vs Typeform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-typeform.md)